He met me halfway, rising like a beast from his hiding place.
A shirt was clutched in his hands, which he flung to the chair.
He was decked out in all black, from his head to his toes. His hair was a mess, from his helmet. His eyes were bright, burning as hot as coals in the fireplace.
He came in closer, sniffing around my neck, up my throat, to my mouth. Finding whatever he was looking for, he removed his (my) leather jacket, throwing it to the chair. His shirt came off next, his boots, socks, pants, and then boxer briefs.
He smelled of cold wind and stress sweat. On him, an aphrodisiac, and I breathed it in like air.
His chest rose and fell easily, but his heart beat out a frantic tattoo behind the shield. I didn’t even have to touch him to feel the tremble that rattled his bones and seized his muscles.
It was worthless for me to even say the words, yet I did.
“I’m all right. We’re all right.”
The words only seemed to make him grow hotter. As quickly as a strike of lightning, he had fisted a handful of the thermal shirt I wore, almost lifting me off my feet to meet his unwavering stare. My eyes moved back and forth, searching, but he kept his very still, steady on mine, sending a surge of heat over me.
“This is what I come here to find. My wife.” He fisted the shirt even tighter. “Wearing another man’s clothes. My daughter in the same bed.”
“I didn’t have any warm clothes,” I whispered. “It’s freezing in here.”
“Cold, ah?”
Oh shit, seemed like the perfect expression, but I kept silent.
Sometimes he terrified me. He’d never hurt me physically, but he could do irrevocable damage without even touching me. That was the power we each held over the other. The cautionary tale that no one ever talks about or writes about in detail. That giving all of your love, your heart and soul, also means the loss of power to something greater than the two of you together.
“Did he sleep in the same bed with my wife?” he said in Italian.
Without thought, I slapped him hard across the face. It rang out in the room, an echo of our clashing hearts. He turned his head, and grinned. He offered me the other cheek. I took it.
“How dare you,” my voice quivered out, full of suppressed anxiety, “even suggest such afuckingthing to me.”
Without warning, the shirt I wore was ripped clean down the middle by the force of his hand alone.
Two pounding heartbeats passed between us.
My breath left me in a rush as he lifted me toward his body. I clung on, arms around his neck, legs around his waist. We seemed to move in a speed I could barely keep up with. My head spun with the intensity, and the breath left my mouth when my back collided with the solid brick wall.
It didn’t even seem to matter. I was numb to anything but him.
A loud hiss echoed in the room, and then a breathless gasp as he entered me in a hard thrust, holding nothing back.
I wasn’t sure how I was standing it—not after the night we’d had. He’d usually have mercy and go slow, giving me a bit of recuperation time. Not this time. His pace punished, his virility never-ending. It was a standoff to see who’d break first. Our bodies slipped easily against the other’s, coated in a fine sheen of sweat and plenty of want.
“Harder!” I screamed out in Italian, urging him with my heels, digging them into his lower back.
The breath left his mouth in a hiss when I stuck my nails in the same spot as the night before, reopening old wounds. This man was an animal; this sensation drove him and drove him, his madness invading my bloodstream, going straight to my head.
“My wife wants it harder?” he said in breathless Italian. “Be careful of what you wish for.”
“Fallo!”Do it!“Oh God.Brando!”
I wasn’t sure if I had blacked out for a second, but when I came to, the pain and pleasure were taking turns, seconds apart, and I wasn’t sure if I could stand it. Brando was ringing wet with sweat from effort, and the savage noises that came from his mouth were pushing me over the edge.
His face was set in hard lines, but his mouth had parted, and his eyes were so hooded that he seemed high.
With each stroke of madness, I could feel his power rattling my bones, every cord and muscle through the thin veil of my flesh.
